we actually get the padre that we want so we look forward to working with you on this. this is something that i am actually considering looking at something that we have not done on this committee for some time. .. something they've laid out a roadmap on that we are looking at the staffing necessary in

fulfilling the human capital needs, the language requirements and other critical element to make sure that our embassies abroad, which are particularly high threat, high-risk positions, have the staff necessary to be able to meet those challenges. isn't that something that you're committed to as we move forward? >> i certainly am, and we've taken those recommendations to heart, integrated 150 new security positions. we have created language proficiency programs for security personnel, particular in arabic. we are looking at using all of our hiring authorities, for qualified personnel that are retired or family members or other experts that can immediately begin contributing to this. it's our highest priority and one my top goals of course is ensuring that we have staff necessary for the 720 positions

in the areas which include iraq, afghanistan, pakistan, yemen and libya. so yes, you do have my commitment there, and we've gone a long way but we certainly can do a much better job. >> mr. smith, don't want you to feel left out of the conversation, let me ask you, can you describe for me how inr participates in the formulation of threat assessment against u.s. posts by the bureau of diplomatic security? one of the things that came out was looking at threats in a different way than we had, where it wasn't just a question of immediate actionable intelligence where we have a specific threat but in an indictment that could created from which a thread could arise

from. could you give me a little sense of how inr goes about that, how you will as the assistant secretary upon confirmation, look at that? >> mr. chairman, thank you very much. inr works closely with our colleagues in the bureau of diplomatic security as was in the regional bureaus and elsewhere in the department to ensure that they have access to the inlligence be we will leave this event here and go live now to capitol hill for some reaction from members of congress to president obama state of union address last night. this is just getting underway live here on c-span2. >> we have a great program for you all. we have a dozen members of congress, leaders in the house and senate to talk about both the reaction to the state of being in but also what again is going into the 113th congress. moderating will be so for star reporters including our chief political correspondent mike allen, congressional report jake sherman, chief washington correspondent anna palmer and

myself. before we get to the program we want to thank our partner and is, innovation a light. and to say a few words on the half of innovation alliance i want to welcome brian, the executive director. [applause] >> thank you very much for that kind introduction. i'm pleased to be here this morning on behalf of the innovation alliance, a group of companies that care a lot about the state of our union and the future of our country. i'd like to give a special thanks to politico for organizing this event and for taking the time for us to look at issues that affect us all. i was thrilled with last night to the president repeatedly promote the importance of innovation as a trainee competes with the rest of the world and the key role in job creation played by technology startups. these are the kinds of congress that rely most on protection of intellectual property to attract investors and help them compete

against large arrivals at home and abroad. i fall innovation policy closely because the innovation dash the innovators, technology companies, manufacturers and employers are my broad range of industries and large and small committees across the country. our members believe in the critical importance of maintaining a strong patent that was envisioned in the united states constitution. for more than two centuries the patent system has incentivized innovation, promoted economic growth and job creation and helps greet the greatest economy the world has ever known. so it was good to hear president obama note that he ideas and inventions behind smart phones, vaccines and a diverse host of american innovations represent our best hope for competing against the rest of the world. the president also briefly mentioned -- although he avoid specific i know what it said in the past that this administration recognizes how important protections of intellectual property is to our

economic growth. the importance of patents has only increased in the 21st century with a knowledge-based economy is help to distinguish the united states among all other nations. as many of people who follow technology issues know, the u.s. patent system is the gold standard protecting ideas and intellectual property. according to the recent time convention poll, the united states is viewed worldwide as the country that does the best job of protecting ideas by a four to one advantage over other nations. patents fuel those countries innovation economy, creating millions of jobs each year in securing our role as the global leader in breakthrough discoveries. as policymakers consider changes to the patent system they should take the time needed to develop a consensus product that will be a force for progress for the full range of american innovation from startup to fortune 500 companies. patent legislation is extremely complex and must be addressed with caution, careful understanding of unintended consequences for inventors and small businesses and with an eye

toward protecting and preserving a system that has served our country so well for so long. a lot of the conventional wisdom -- is wrong, the government accountability office tried to set the record state initial report on patent litigation result. although the gl report hasn't received much attention we remain hopeful that congress will take the time to look at patent issues more deeply and get any legislation right for the genuine problems are fixed without jeopardizing the livelihoods of small inventors, universities and anyone else who worked hard to bring new inventions to life. thank you again for joining us today. i look forward to what will be an interesting discussion. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, brian, thank you once again, innovation alliance. just a couple of housekeeping notes. what makes these events fun for everyone is the interactive

nature of them. for couple of things. please tweak your questions to at political events. the moderates will all have tablets on their laps so they will see your questions. also we'll be doing some real time polling. instructions are on card on your seats i believe. also hashtag turn 11 this would get them. we will track everything. without further delay i would like to welcome my colleague jake sherman who will introduce our first panel. thank you all. [applause] >> good morning, everybody. i am thrilled to be joined on this early post state of the union morning by susan brooks, congressman from indiana, james lankford from oklahoma and mike pompeo, three house republicans who are obviously at the event

we held last night. our mobile polling question for this conversation is displayed on the tvs above is so weight in and participate in this event. so let's get started, guys. this is the question that we are asking everybody today so you'll hear it throughout the presentation, but the biggest thing i learned about president obama last night was that he was -- i'll start with you. >> in charge for five years but responsible for nothing. >> and carbon lankford? >> i'm not sure i learned that. i think that i need outside of it, i think i learned he finds a very important that you call your mother. >> obvious reference to his urging the american people to sign up for health care. >> call your mom. >> congresswoman? >> he liked accused the word i a lot rather than we.

unfortunately i paid a lot more attention to that in rereading his remarks this morning. he used the word i a lot. >> one thing that was obvious and very prominent and the white house talked a lot about was his, he wants to take executive action, unilateral action on things like he's going to raise the federal minimum wage, talking about a whole host of executive actions. august and lankford, want to house republicans plan to do about that? >> that's the interesting part. he's going back to his base saying i'm going to stick those are publicans in the eye. i'm going to go around them. most of the proposals he is laying out he already has statutory authority do. he's trying to charge of his base to go after. some of the issues he is getting significant respect on an issue. quite frankly there is traditionally been a member of your own party in the senate that has risen up and challenged his own president when it exceeded constitutional authority. think about robert byrd in west virginia challenging democrat president to say you can't do

that, we have to honor the constitution. we just don't find that in this day and age, people challenging their own president. but if he pushes gun constitutional authority he should be held to account for that not only hearing but supreme court as we've seen this been court cases last week where the president says to the senate i'm going to define what your schedule is. i'm going to tell the senate when you're in recess and when you're not. i think there's been court will knock that back. >> you're involved in a key committees on capitol hill. what does he have the authority to do by executive order? what you think the balance of this are and how should house republicans respond? >> look, every president has issued executive orders. that's perfectly programmed to do but the scope of things this president has done is very different from many presidents before him. to take major pieces of law and just because he says so choose not to enforce, that is different than previous presidents in executive orders which implication documents.

he said look, we've got as health care law that i love and i'm going to take huge pieces of it in the late. he said that's an old fight, we don't want to read fight this fight. that's like less than one month old. taking major pieces of health care still are not in place and yet he's declaring this an old fight, something we shouldn't talk about that is out of bounds for people to even have a discussion about. those are the things that we will push back on. when he takes actions that are outside, we'll have hearings, and even people like a good solid conservative understand when present take executiv action in what the president has you begin to have a country that very different from what our founders had intended to i will post this question to all of you guys. i assume you'll have the same view on this but especially congressman pompeo and lankford talked about oil and now oil production is up and his energy policies want to get yo her takn that. you might have a different

opinion than the president i would guess, but why don't you fire off? >> it is stunning to watch the president who is bound and determined honest about his desire coal powered fire plans, talk about how oil production is up on his watch. every single policy statement that he makes puts a burden of folks are trying to produce these energy. talk about taking the ordinary tax deductions that every other industry budgets. health care bill that makes expensive for them to operate their company. and then he talks about transition. he didn't say how long you want to natural gas to be a transition for. i suspect about 20 minutes. and we know that fossil fuels will be around for decades to come and yet this president pressed away his message and want to pretend it's not so. >> the president said am going to take executive action i'm going to act on this, i'm going to streamline democracy, what am

i first increase am going to streamline bureaucracies to make sure natural gas can be used in factories. my first thought was committee want to streamline some bureaucracies and usual 10 interphone that you talk about, there is a keystone pipeline permit that's been under desk almost 2000 days waiting on just a permit signature on it. so there's some significant things typically talk about streamlining for factories are right now the epa, if you want to modify your vehicle to use cng come is between six and eight months just to get a permit for that vehicle. vehicles almost out of date by the time you get certified to use it. so there are a lot of bureaucracies for the expansion of fuels. we've got a major push on the export of lng. the minister you slow walking all these permits for the export of lng there would be a tremendous job boost. we should be exporting worldwide. >> congresswoman, you were shaking your head. >> well, what for me, last night

we talked about cutting red tape and making the bureaucracy much easier for companies of all sorts to operate come infrastructure and so forth. he was talking about again just making things simpler and cutting red tape and lessen bureaucracy and we shouldn't be fighting inside the federal government. he started out with that, that we should get over talk about the fight and defend government when those are exactly all of the title policies that we continue to see from the president. and so i kind of laughed when you talk about cutting red tape because this is truly the growth of his bureaucracy and government under his watch that has made so much more difficult for the american people to move forward. >> one thing the president probably can't have executive order but would like to see guys become which is immigration reform. i know this is a touchy topic, republican circles and democratic circles very difficult in 2014.

what is your view on the senate's immigration proposal and what would you like to see house republicans the? >> we are headed today to have a really important discussion with the rest of our republican colleagues at the retreat about the principles that we can stand together on with respect to immigration reform. i do believe immigration reform is necessary. i don't let the senate's proposal in this huge massive package was the right way to go about it. it's too complex of a problem so i agree with our approach of taking a different problems with immigration piece by piece. and so i think we will tackle it. i hope we jump into the because it is a problem that's not going away, and so i'm pleased we're going to come together and come up with this principle. we know the business community is one of the top agenda items in my community, whether the chambers or the agricultural community, they want is immigration reform happen. and for the workforce of this country we actually need to get this right.

but we've got to secure the border but if we don't secure the border border and we're bace same problem that brought us the problem to begin with. so does start with border security and then i believe we can get into the other reforms that are necessary. it's too complicated to take it in one bill. >> vice president biden this morning on cbs, you might not it's in the budget debate but what he actually said that citizenship is what should be at the end of the path will. of the path will. it shouldn't be only legalization. it should be citizenship. is immigration reform going to happen this year's? >> no. that's our biggest concern. i don't anyone looks at our immigration system and says this is working great. every thing is working fine on immigration. it's not. legal and illegal immigration with major issues. i do agree there are things that need to be done. we are not convinced we have a willing partner that wants to fix the policy. the reason i say that is not

just some of the rhetoric. go back to december 2012 when we passed a bill that dealt with high skilled workers and the president initially jumped out and said i'm going to do a veto because it doesn't deal with everything. i don't want to do it a piece at a time. we have said this is not something we're going to do large-scale. this is not something we think should be done in a comprehensive fashion. if his focus is if we can do everything we will do nothing, that said. i think we can agree on many things. >> to bring you back to where you begin, so the president with respect to immigration has taken executive action that is deeply, deeply outside every statutory authority. has chosen not to enforce major pieces of immigration law. so when it comes to us and says pass another statute, there's the conference to execute against the law is incredibly -- so what i would love to see him do is say, watch concord about what's out there today, watch me begin to execute this, he we did

find a great deal more willingness in the republican party to pass a new set of laws and fix them the songs that i think we all have identified. >> just to give the audience a sense of with house republican conference, you guys have it good political sense where the conference is, how deep is the distrust based on what you said? this is something i hear all the time from you and your colleagues, how deep is the distrust with the president? >> jake, just a start, it's not us. it's the folks we represent. when we go home, i was home in kansas this weekend. when you go back and talk to folks, the distrust of this president, the promises he makes, the statement is searched and then he walks away from them. that's a kind word to describe it. he is known by that. they see a. they are living it and it's impacting their lives. this isn't about politics. this isn't about getting reelected. it's about the lives of real kansans and folks all across the

country don't trust this president to do the things he promised he would you. >> a challenge due to my position in house, i've been some of the negotiation with the white house, i sat around the table in the roosevelt room, and the president said one thing behind closed doors, we feel like we're headed in the right direction. within 12 hours is completely different. >> i would just say as a freshman in my first year in congress, besides him from the president the state of being last year, we've only had one other meeting with the president of the united states where he actually came to the house republicans and talk to us, one other time. and so i think the problem is a nortel trust you have to have a relationship. and there is not a solid working good relationship with the president. this is coming, state of the union last that i think it's the third time i'm not any meetings, at this point. having those negotiations, but yet we have little to no

relationship with the president. and actually i would think a lot of democrats members i've talked to would say the same thing. >> but still to saddle this album more than, given the entire state of the union, all 60 fibers or whatever it was, how many proposals of the president laid out the house republicans tackle? just to give sense of what the house republican conference is spent there's a couple of them we have tackle the big deterrent to the vice president said we will work on reforming our jobs program and the training program. i leaned over to kevin mccarthy and said that's the skills act. we did that already. he threatened to veto that emulate. some of those things we are very supportive of. he talked about streamlining permitting but we are very supportive of those things to we would like to see duplication remove. we would like to see more decision making at the local level. but basically halfway through the speech said the american people won't be successful unless we go in and do all these federal programs. those two can't be the same.

>> now you guys leave, you had two beautiful cambridge, maryland, for the house republican retreat. i heard they got three inches of snow so hopefully you brought your boots. if you could give us a sense of what house republicans will be tackling this year, give us a sense of what you want to see at the end of this weekend next week what will washington be talking about and what will house republicans be doing? >> jake, i'll say this. one of the things that was noticeably absent last night was any this discussion about america's debt. he opened the speech by saying he would reduce the deficit about half. right, i told myself them that's like if you're going to hamas and our, you and and a 100, he told the cop a, what a great deal. i hope we have lost sight of that. doesn't not an old tired debate. this is one, james and i and class of 2010 came to tackle so we hope we have lost sight of the fact that america is still

spinning $600 billion a year more than it is taking in and that is entirely unsustainable. >> one of the things that i was pleased that he talked about last night and so i've result is he took the lead on as well is tax reform. he did bring up tax reform act night, and he actlly talked about capital reform in a way that he didn't talk about raising taxes for the first time. so he talked about actually helping businesses and lowering rates and trying to make sure that we keep jobs in this country, and bring those overseas profits back to our shores. so i'm hopeful. you know, i felt like tax reform was really moving in a positive direction, and so with chairman camp leading the way i'm hopeful we may get some tax on done. >> congressman ledford, you can actually tell us what's going to happen. >> oh, no. i'm not clairvoyant in that way. especial among house republicans. most of our conversations over

the next three days will circle around to different sets of issues. some of the problems we want to solve we will, public and move to the senate and through the white house. the other one is tax reform is one of those things, immigration is one of those things. what other going to try to get energy policy, these are all big issues that are going to take up a lot of time. we are planning to do appropriations bill. it will be shocking in washington since web and agreed upon number potential working does. that will take a tremendous amount of floor time so we we lived somewhat with what we can do through the summer so we'll have to be strategic on what we take on through the scheduled. >> that was an excellent conversation. time to wrap up. thank you very much for coming and sharing your thoughts and help lay that made a lot of news. thank you very much for your time. now i'd like to welcome, i think you guys -- we are shuffling right away, stage right. i'm a reporter for a reason.

thanks, guys did not like to welcome congressman kevin mccarthy from california and congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz, the chair of the democratic national committee. [applause] >> so it's just me and you. >> good morning. >> how are you speak with very well. >> i've been asking for a one on and are a long time with senator mccarthy. i finally get one and it's on live television. one question we're asking everybody is, the biggest thing that you learned about president obama last night was what? he watches madman? >> so you are saying out of that hole sixtysomething minute speech there was nothing new the children about president obama? >> no. when i listened to the spech, i

was trying to look through what he talked about, what he had talked about. there wasn't some new that came out, maybe a little humor. i thought his ending was very good, very compelling story. but it wasn't something new that grasped by our a, so it almost as i watched a metaphor, watch somebody on a long trip in a car going in the wrong direction running out of gas. but i want it to look back about it, he seemed like he wanted to keep the democrats together, really rally with them. health care, but i wondered if the split a lot of the democrats that could cost him the senate and just put them in a stronger box. spent as everybody probably knows but i will remind mr. mccarthy is at number

three house republican, the house with, to rangel house republicans to vote for bills and initiatives, party initiatives. >> i don't think people get up this early. >> we have a dedicated audience. we are very fortunate. out of the entire speech last night, touched on a lot of things, executive orders, immigration, minimum wage, what is what are some things that house republicans will take from that speech in which legislation. >> well, one, trade, we would work with an entrée. we would love to work with him on energy but nothing within the speech said here's legislation. that either do what i want or i will try to go a round. every time when he went through, and i don't think that is simple to understand he has the phone independent to use the phone and call and let's use the pen to sign the bills will work together and to me that's

frustration but remember we make policy in the world of politics. when he talked about what i refer to about job training and others, that sound a lot like the skills act that passed the house and lingers innocent. so that's a capability. use the phone to tell harry reid let's move it, find common ground there. for our opportunities, but it's got to be more than a speech, it's got to be work and this seems to be a little history of not that follow-through. >> you touched on a number of things that you discussed, let's start with the job training peace. you talked about the skills act there till our guest kind of what -- what could you work on with president obama on? >> in the house is called the skills act. you have a lot of job training programs, a lot of the duplication and others. how t do streamline that? how do you get individuals to get the training they need,

faster instance, working it through, eliminating duplicati duplication? these are things a lot within community and community colleges love, and could be helpful for development. so we passed more than 160 bills that linger in the senate. the challenge that we do and this is what i bring up making policy in the world of politics, the house and that's a lot of legislation but you have a senate that has a fear of may be losing a majority. so you have a senate leader that doesn't want to put a lot o of s members that could be vulnerable in tough races, up on any vote. so you did not commitments and deny bringing something up. that's difficult for the president if he wants to accomplish legislation as well. it's not the biggest challenge to deal with in the house. is biggest challenge is what the senate and can he get members within his own party or the

leader in the senate to say yes, i'm going to bring that up and we will have a round of amendments and some will be tough votes because that is not the nature the senate wants to go. the senate doesn't want anything to happen. >> you are saying a lot of house bills are stuck in the senate, ma some of these things are things president obama talk about. one thing he talked, the centerpiece of his speech was immigration reform. so talk about what you guys are looking at with immigration reform and will happen in 2014? will you actually ask bills in 2014? >> we're going to issues conference today. that will be one of the topics. immigration currently is broken. and the challenge, and giveaways of what we can look at immigration but the system itself today is broken. interesting that the most people don't pay close attention to is, 42% of everyone that is here illegally came here legally. became one of these and

overstate. nobody has any checks in it, right? in today's society we don't have that. we have a system that is a lack of a lottery and a chain migration. we have an idea where you come your, you become an engineer, one of the best and brightest come out of our universities and then we tell you, no, no, no. you can't stay here. you need to go to another country and compete against us. that's a backwards thought. there's a lot of places there, first and foremost what members i'll tell you read on both sides of the aisle, if you're digging yourself in a hole the first thing is to stop digging. they don't secure the border, you just put -- are just going to perpetuate the problem. a lot of the things that were asked for in the 86 immigration reform never came to fruition. so secure first before you do anything and then i think you will find the way the house will go about it, issue by issue.

when you do with an issue of immigration a lot of people have a lot of different opinions. make each issue stand on its own and have that debate. that's the way the house looks at it. and i think it's more important to get it right then the timing of when you do it. every time i read about a big bill, has to get done today, that's when it gets done wrong. and how many times do you have a chance to do it right? make sure it's right before anything those speeds what i hear you say is maybe 2015 is an option, maybe doing this in 2015 is feasible at this point speak with the other thing i would tell you is, i would not support unless it's right there. >> so you're saying it probably will come to the fort if you don't think it's right, if your leadership doesn't think it's right? >> we're going to sit down at a conference today going through all the different issues on health care, on energy, from economics, we will set out our

issues. thesthese are the things we work towards. we come to make a difference and we come to get right, not to say have to address it the next day. >> so one of the thorniest issues of immigration is the active citizenship, what to do with the 11 or so million undocumented immigrants better in the united states. you make the news last week when your home in bakersfield about your view on citizenship and what to do with the 11 million here. what is your view on that? >> i don't think it's news, it's what i've always said. it was news because we were on break. i think first and foremost you have to change the current system and secure the border. once you've done that and get gone through, then you can talk about what the others are going through. a lot of people come to me and what the big argument is, ma a path to citizenship right off the bat.

i don't believe that from that standpoint. i believe the idea that you can get to and earn legal status, doesn't mean it again and illegally you broke the law that you can stay here. a felony, you've got to go. i think it's different for people that came in under the age of 18. we don't hold in society you liable for items. i think that's different. but otherwise it became over the age of 18, in which a look back in 1980 provision, i mean, half of those who were illegal who said could become citizens became citizens through the process. but we are a land of immigrants, a land of a rule of law in the think have to sustain the other was you'll break down society. and so i get protested because i won't support the senate version or say law does not matter, that somehow someone just becomes a

citizen. that's not good for society. spent i think will have someone joined on the stage, debbie wasserman schultz. i should point out that you're both at the grammys. so i'm not sure if you guys hung out with taylor swift together. >> we were -- >> congresswoman, going to bring in the conversation. ms. mccarthy has had a long time to hog the stage alone. the question were asking all of our participants is, the one thing you learned last night about president obama was blank, was what? >> was that is going to reach out to congress and continue to ask the republicans to find common ground, but that after five years of trying to do that, we have a lot of progress that we need to continue to make a decent going to wait on the deck is going to take the actions that he needs to take to ensure that we continue to move america forward and help more people reach the middle class. and the ball is in their court.

>> so as you listen to ms. mccarthy and these fine folks just it, he said there's a bunch of bills, present much to streamline the job training program, that sitting in the senate, the skills act the house republicans passed the house republicans are saying they have done all the stuff on the president and harry reid has ignored. what is your response? >> my response is how we have to make sure that when we are trying to find common ground that we not engage in a my way or the highway politics. with all due respect suggesting this legislation the house passed and sent to the senate and they should just take it up and pass it, is not the way to approach achieving common ground. the president proposed last night that we should make sure that we are making a significant investment in focusing on building american skills so that they can be retrained and focus on new careers. that's obviously something that the republicans have indicated they are interested in.

probably the approach in the skills act is not something that can be fully embraced by the democrats, but if we can agree on the basic premise that job training and building american skills is something we want to work together on been that's a starting point. >> this is a good point. we don't say it's our way or no way. today we're going to take up the farm bill. what did we do? we passed a bill in the house and senate passed a bill and we went to conference. the same thing we did with the omnibus. that's the way the country was created. so i'm not saying take - i'm saying do something, tell us where you standards i've got a major problem in california when it comes to the drought. the first thing the president said to me when women in the back for the escort, you've got a big problem in california drought. i'm calling the government more. i said thank you, mr. president. i want to work with you on that together. we want to work on this. the house took a position on the water crisis within two years

ago. the senate has never taken any position. i don't care if the senate takes a position, just tell me where you stand. the structure of our government will find a way that we have common ground. >> i could step back for a second. this will play itself out spent since i was running late and kevin had a lot of time on his own here, let me just jump in and suggest the president made it very clear what he thinks we should be doing, made very concrete proposals, lots of things that the republicans should be able to embrace and work with us on the we need to make sure that, for example, when you are working, you should not have to do a tremendous amount of handwringing about how you're going to be able to sustain itself in retirement. so ensuring that we have an automatic enrollment process in an i.r.a., when you get it, start a job. that has been proposed in the president's budget everything to your he has been present an unfortunate the republicans have not been able to take of the. last night he proposed in the

absence of congressional action a myra program so we can every treasury bond that people can invest in, low-wage workers can invest in so that they can eventually transition to an i.r.a. that is not a concept, i hope that the concept. let me speak optimistically that republicans can embrace. we should at a minimum make sure the people who have a job are not living in poverty. the overwhelming majority of americans support a minimum wage. we should make sure that we create manufacturing opportunities to we can make things in america again. president obama has established to manufacturing proposals, but acknowledge we could take that into even higher gear if republicans are willing to work with him on actually passing legislation to do that. but at the end of the day, we have to make sure that we focus on working together. kevin, we have a good working relationship. i think there are things that we can sit down and come together on the we've talked about that

privately many times, but look at what the republicans agenda was this week. with all due respect, to suggest that your top priorities have been focusing on helping more americans join the middle class when yesterday the top priority for republicans on your agenda was to restrict women's rights to make her own health care decisions through pushing through legislation h.r. seven. i mean, that's the stuff that is at the top of the republican agenda. that's why the president's speech was heavy on those and showed the contrast between the priorities of the republicans. >> let me fill the audience of it, the house passed a bill that would restrict federal funding for abortions but is that right? >> this is already law which is taxpayer money. people a difference of opinion on so why do you use somebody's -- people have religious figures no, no, no. this is far more than it difference of opinion. this is legislation that would

go much further. we have a federal law that already prohibits taxpayer funding of abortion. that is in statute, codified in the affordable care act, for the punters by president obama's executive order that he used to make sure that it was clear that that was not allowed, and the republicans because the top prerace unfortunately recently has been narrowed social and a rigid social agenda rather than making sure that -- [talking over each other] >> the number one thing here is about the economy. spent exactly, which is why we should -- [talking over each other] >> today we'll have a farm bill. >> i'm going to try to play let's find common ground. [laughter] >> great. >> i've got to be good for something. i try to divide them all the time that will try to bring them together. the myra concept which was new

to a lot of us last night, i hadn't heard the white house, this was one of things the white house projected in the run up to the state of union. what is the initial republican take on that? is that something you guys should be open to or are open to? >> i do know the specifics of it yet, but i'm a big believer in allowing people to invest their own money. einstein said the only miracle in this world is the time value of money. compounded interest. i come from a family of not well. my wealth is what i put away. i started my first mutual fund, putting 50 bucks away and it builds. the same with my kids college. i love the idea of giving somebody the opportunity to actually, putting somethin someg away, leading to become more self-assured in the future, that they don't have to rely on somebody else. for mean that is a structured idea that we could sit down and talk about the tax reform spent so you heard of that first year. that's the myra concept is not yet dead.

[laughter] not yet. it is only 8:45. we only have a couple minutes left here so i want to ask you both, we are now in january and, obviously, the election is rapidly approaching. both you have key roles, both raise a lot of money for your party, both have key positions within the party. tell us exactly why you think, each of you come in 2015 your party will be in control of the house and the senate. >> i want to hear her. >> you start. age before beauty. [laughter] stuff that's probably true spent we should create a talk show. >> first within reality, i don't see democrats gaining the house to look at retirement, you look at the prospects of where the seats are, you look at the latest "washington post" poll just on economic voters. the strongest point we've been

since 2002, anytime during the president's time served. i watched the other side stand up when it came to health care. i think obamacare comes in three ways, and i think voters are going to send a little message but as of today most people have lost their health care than actually gain. watch the approval, disapproval. at the end of the day the house will end up with more republicans than they currently have today. in the senate, it is a true play for the majority. it's actually expanding where it stood before. for that same reason the democrats stood up for health care, tnc chair she says they're going to run on that, i will guarantee you those will become of the madrid of whether they keep innocent or not. even the questions last night can the president coming to the state and campaign for them? that's the difficult part when you're running against. the first party -- i think is in

is up for majority as well for republicans to take over. >> will the president campaign, should he campaign with people in alaska, arkansas? >> yes, he should. go together. spent in answer to your first question, yes, i do think that in 2015 i'm not going to top of a particular democrats will take the house but but what were predicted for going to pick up seats and that's because -- >> where? >> down, boy. [laughter] and his because if you look at the contract of the present speech last night, fortunate for the republicans and the country they are strangled in a civil war with a tea party has been allowed to take control of the agenda as evidenced by the legislation is at the top of the priority list this week. the pew poll, we can throw out a lot of different polls, the pew poll also action and credible poll, shows more americans want democrats to be in charge of the

legislature branch of government after the election, more americans trust democrats to move our country forward when it comes to the economy. and more americans are concerned about republicans ethical, ethical considerations, for lack of a better term. the stark contrast between the priorities of democrats as evidenced by the president's state of the union last night was that we are wanting to focus on making sure that more americans can join the middle class, trying to move this economy forward and republicans continued to be engaged in a civil war that are focused -- i didn't interrupt you. and are focused on much more so on a rigid social agenda, which doesn't even get to the top five or 10 for the majority of americans. >> we have to wrap. that was a very lively conversation. congressman mccarthy, congresswoman wasserman shultz, thank you for joining us. i would now like to welcome

political chief white house correspondent mike allen and missouri senator roy blunt to the stage. [applause] >> [inaudible conversations] >> good morning. thank all of you for being here this or the morning after you were all late tweeting and making use and all things were going to welcome to our viewers in live stream land, and figures on c-span. we appreciate very much c-span

bring these amazing conversations to our audience. we are honored to have with us senator roy blunt, from his reviews on the appropriations committee. senator blunt, last night the most important thing that you learned about president obama was what? >> you know, probably the most important thing i learned about i didn't know was i thought that he was the most comfortable giving the speech that i have seen in getting any of the state oof union speech the authority f some really good moments of showing that he was relaxed with who he was. .com that doesn't necessary mean i think got to be relaxed with where he's headed our way thinks he should go as an individual, but i thought the madmen moment was pretty good. when he talked about calling your mom to get her signed up for health care, because she might like to come. i thought that was pretty good. and i'm not sure if it was in the speech or not but it was added or in the speech he wanted, it was well done and generally well delivered.

>> you are wearing cowboy boots. we don't always have cowboy boots on the stage. >> these are my snow boots. [laughter] i would have one other shoes today but i was walking my little boy to school and we walked from the parking garage to the school here in washington, and i better get my boots on to do that. >> you on the escort me last night's he got to ask or talk to the president. what was that like? >> well again, he seemed pretty relaxed. he and i were talking, when i talk to the present last night was briefly, and i think he and mrs. obama has done a great job with the girls. it in a great job as parents, everything to been a really good example has a family of prioritizing what you do as a family. it's one of the things i think that they have both done the very best. i even read the other day where, because of the age of the girls, i think sasha is the youngest, i'm not sure about that, but one of them would still be in school

when he's done as president. he said we may stay in washington and of the year or so because that's what it takes for her to finish school where she's comfortable. i think that's a good example for the president to set as a father your you know, when i asked about the president, the best i can tell a as a father ad the husband is doing the kinds of things you would want a father and a husband to do. >> when you made that point what did he say? >> he said he appreciated it and the girls are growing up fast. i think that's another thing that's on his mind a lot is how quickly these kids are growing up. last night when he said something about his children and grandchildren, you could see that as a guy who is beginning to think that's going to happen and happen quicker than he thought it would have been. >> and grandchildren, no pressure there. during his speech you had a little exchange with the present chief of staff. tell us about that. >> he was sitting right in front of me, and when the president

mentioned one of the things that could happen, which is this idea of a unique manufacturing hub, the chief of staff turned around and said that's your bill he's talking about, the bill that senator brown and i have, and there's lots of bipartisan legislation out there, mike, that could happen. and the president, more than anybody else in the country, in the government at least, is in the best place to figure out what you would like to have happen that's possible. and i think that's the element of the art of the government that the president has had the hardest time putting together. notches what he's for, and what he's for it is important, but what useful work that could actually be done is more important. and they think that he's had a hard place figuring out how to get -- you said a hard time to get how to get to that place. and nobody is in a better position than them to look at what's out there, what could happen. and another things he mentioned last night clearly could happen. manufacturing legislation,

things that advance american energy. sunder stab in know from michigan and i have a bill, the excellence in mental health i, that is supported by veterans groups, -- center stab in know. by behavioral health groups, by law enforcement that which is simply allow us to expand at very little cost. get access to behavior health, the federally qualified health center's, committee held since. that could happen. the present could be signed into law some time this year if he would just maybe even if he doesn't get involved but if he gets involved all these things are easier than if he doesn't. and so we could see a number of significant things happen if the president wants to be part of that. >> for those of you in the room here at the capitol hill, just a couple of blocks from the white house, remind you there's a mobile poll question on the screen to have you used to for

those he on live stream on c-span2 i want to hold up this morning's -- obama to congress, if you won't, i will. senator blunt, the president has been talking about his pen and a slow. what do you make of that? >> i don't like the pin and the phone analogy. i think it shows that the president with three years left in his presidency, which is by the way the length of the entire kennedy presidency, he has that much time left to be president all the time president kennedy was president, to say that i'm sort of giving up on both the congress and maybe even, and maybe the constitution. if there's a reason that things are supposed to be done the way they're supposed to be done, and there is a normal order of things in legislating come in governing and in life. and occasionally you can violate them and get away with it but if you violate them over and over again, eventually you're going to face some significant

problem. >> what is he violating your? >> well, trying to shortcut this process and think that that is really the way to get things done. i just don't think that's the right way. it takes more effort on his part to pass a law than to sign an executive order, but one, i think the number of these executive orders are questionable, and two, they don't necessarily have to have a life beyond the president. when he was running for president he said the first thing i'm going to do is look at every one of george bush's executive orders and see how many of them i need to eliminate immediately. this is sort of like if you were running the race, you know, around a track and you decide i deserved to win, i'm pretty important, i think i'll just cut across the middle and get to the finish line quicker than everybody else. you are disqualified at that point from being named the winner. and i would like to see the president make the effort it takes to get things done the constitutional way.

and there are plenty of things as i've already said that we could do if we did them the right way to spend a point we made at the top of playbook this one is that there are things in washington that are starting to work after talking for years now about a broken washington is, looks like republicans are not going to shut down the government again or even have a serious threat. there was a budget deal. senator blunt, you on the appropriations committee you mentioning to me backstage that it looks like the appropriations process actually might work for the first time in -- >> in seven years, which is truly both a tragedy and a travesty that we haven't done this the right way. you know, appropriating sounds pretty boring until you realize that it's really how you set your priorities. it's how you set your priorities with your family, how you set your priorities with your personal spending but it's how you said government priorities, and the one time in seven years has the process work the way it's supposed to.

now, the other day we brought all the appropriations bills to the floor, a third of the year into the spending year, and passed them all at once. actually that was a step forward because many of these appropriation bills haven't been updated in years. a year ago when we started talking about cutting a line by line cutting on which -- woman didn't follow the law when we appropriate more money and a law said you could spend, the so-called sequester, didn't have to have and by the way, tomato happen if you violated the law that said this is how much money you could spend your but the point i was going to make, mike, when we brought the service chiefs in dash i'm also on the armed services committee and the commerce committee. we brought them into the armed service committee and then later to the defense appropriation committee, and everyone of them said look, this question is a problem but you are cutting a budget that we haven't wanted for years. you are cutting lines in a budget that met our needs six

years ago, not that met our needs now. this would be like if you're a family and you set aside money that would remodel the bathroom in every year for the next six or you couldn't touch the column unless you were remodeling the bathroom. you know? and the government, that means you either don't lose money at all and more likely you just remodel the bathroom for the next six years. but getting the priorities in order, updating what we need to do, if we would just take these bills to the floor as the new appropriation chairman, barbara mikulski for maryland would want to do and destined or shelby, the leading republican on that committee would want to do, take those bills to the floor like we did for 30 years in a row, and that any member of the senate, any member of the house could bring an them as how they would like to spend money better and the appropriators, to the best of their ability, defend the

bill that brought to the floor, but occasionally members come up with something better than you thought of to spend that $10 million or whatever amount of money it is. that's how you set priorities. so one thing about the system working again, we set the bar now so low that we surely can get over it. we surely can because it's not a very high bar. if we just go back to the normal way of doing things. if we would, you know, to legislate, we don't have to have a total rewrite of the tax code to do better than we've been doing. we can look at all the pro-job creating bills the house has passed that have sent to the senate. surely some of them are bills that passed the senate if given a chance. we could look at these manufacturing things that a number of us are involved in in a bipartisan way. in energy, by the way, will drive manufacture. more american energy is not, doesn't just create the jobs that produce the energy.

all kinds of jobs begin to be created if you have, if you're confident about the future of the utility bill, if you know the delivery system is going to be there because you figured out how to make that part of the process worked in a better and more dependable way. all kinds of things will happen if we would just get busy and do the things we needed to get this economy going. >> senator blunt, you know the house. you were the number three leader there, the house majority whip when i was covering the house. you never lost a bill on the floor while i was covering you. what do you think the chances of action on immigration are this year what you were telling me backstage that you feel strongly that doing immigration in peace as it does make sense. sense. >> well, i do, and when i was the majority whip and house when republicans win a majority in the house and i was there, we didn't lose bills on the floor but we also never passed bills. two bills in all the time i was

the majority whip, six years passed without democrat votes. that means hundreds and hundreds of bills passed with some democrats voting for every single one of them. .. i said this for a long time, there are three, at least three distinct questions to be answered. how do we secure the border at the workplace, the actual border in a better way?

what are the legitimate work force needs of the country, and what do you do with people who came illegally or stayed illegally? it is not 50/50. people can across the border illegally without documents and have for of the people who are here illegally came legally and state. you have two different problems but what do you do about those people? live vote, my view is the same majority in the house and senate, the best majority that come up the answer to question 1 how do you secure the border may not be the best 218 people in the house or 15 in the senate to come up with the question of the workforce needs of the country, neither of them may be the right people to come up with what you do about people -- you are going to get a better solution to all those problems if you deal with them one at a time than to try

to deal with them collectively. on many occasions in the past history of the country difficult problems had to be broken up and solved in pieces to get the best solution rather than a solution. what we should want is the best answer to all those questions, not just we don't want any answer unless we answers them all at once. is that the right goal? or is the right goal how we get the best answer to every part of this challenge? >> one of your rules for leadership working with members on the importance of social media, on twitter, what are you telling? >> we have seen such a revolution in the way people communicate in the last decade and probably in the last three weeks. there are some communicating thing going gone that i am not aware of. i am sure of that and interestingly the closer members

are to having run for election it can be quite a while, six years is a long time. moser, they appreciate all the ways people communicate, every one of the senators is doing things, republican senators with media they were not doing a couple years ago. >> is it hard to convince some of them? >> you do but once their staff gets into this as well, it matters. i started three years ago telling a story, it was in one of the cairo books about lyndon johnson, a story about sam rayburn, when he was a young member of congress, he probably had a staff of two or three but told his staff however people communicate if people write us a handwritten letter i want you to

write a handwritten letter back. if they type as a letter, i want you to type the letter back and i will sign it. he may have said if they write a letter on a big tablet i want you to write a letter back on a big tablet and what was he really saying? i want to communicate with people way they want to communicate with us and we -- this process works better and more efficiently if you respond to people way they want to respond to you. the number of letters we get in our senate office when we do that pretty aggressively trying to communicate in all kinds of ways we don't get many letters anymore and many of the questions people ask they don't need it, complicated answer, they need the shortest answer, is senator blunt for or against this bill? our correspondents who do most of that and bob walker and say what do you need to know how are things going? i say to them if somebody says

the my for or against a bill just say yes or no. probably half the time that is plenty of answer for them and if it is not the right answer they will challenge you and say why is he not for this bill? i think he should be for it and then you have that discussion. if yes or no is all they need say yes or no and go on to the next question some other person is entering and communicate with people the way they want to communicate with us. >> how many books do you read in a year? >> i read a lot of books in the year. probably more than i read health care legislation. i read a book all week, a 50 books a year. >> we could agree that is a great practice. in a minute we will have america's best senate correspondent to jump out. i want to thank those of you on c-span, all of you here, thank

you for attending. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> senator, thank you for joining us. senator robb portman of ohio. you have been in washington for some time, since the 90s, you were former house member, senator since 2010. how would you say this ranks, this speech ranks compared to the state of the union you listened to over the years? >> where does this rank?

the president delivered it well as the always does but there were no big proposals and it was kind of an ambivalent speech. restarted talking how great things are, the state of the union is good and then he said actually is not going so well, therefore we need to make some changes in terms of take-home pay and long term unemployed. and he says i want to work with congress, i am here to work with congress and then he said i am going to go around congress. as compared to other states of the union i have listened to the message was kind of mottled and it was hard for me to know what he was trying to communicate. i believe he is uncertain what kind of second term president he wants to be. one model is bill clinton who in his second term was productive and did more in his second term as far as lasting impression than the first term, welfare reform is the 1997 balanced

budget agreement which dealt with medicare and taxes as well as putting the government on a diet that ends up with a balanced budget over a period of several years. he has a decision to make. will be be like like so many second term presidents and not make a major impact? i think that speech was reflective of where he is which is he is not giving us a clear message. >> he did mention a handful of measures you think you could work with. one for instance is a trade promotion authority, something you have been involved with working in the u.s. pr, trade representative under george bush. democratic leaders are very skeptical about this approach. do you think the white house is committed to getting this done? or is that a nod towards bipartisanship? >> i hope so. there were several openings.

one was on trade and the president made it clear he is going to promote what he should have been doing all along which is the knocking down of barriers to trade, service providers, it is crazy the united states of america hasn't had the ability to negotiate a trade agreement and that is what trade promotional 40 is, give the president the ability to forget the last and best offer and complete an agreement, we'll be negotiated one agreement in the history of our country that was not under trade promotion authority. every president has since fdr and every president has asked for it. he needs to come out swinging and say i need this and needs to go to his democrat former colleagues and say you got to allow me as president to be able to interact with the world. we can't sit on the sidelines and use that analogy last night. >> needs to make a bigger push to get that through. >> last night was a good start. i hadn't seen it until last night and now we need to

encourage him and his cabinet to be out there explaining to the american people this is important going to democrats and saying this is something that is incredibly important to our country right now. we are losing market share every day, we are not knocking down a, they are negotiating. we have sat on the sidelines, that hurts us, i as president want that authority these last three years to help with the economy moving forward. >> had any conversations with the incoming finance committee chairman about marking the bill up and getting through the committee on the senate floor or do you not think that will be on the committee? >> we will get that support. we talked last night. >> was the receptive to it? >> you will have to talk to him. he believes in trade, knocking down barriers, got some good

provisions that relate to digital products, ip issues and property issues so there are some good aspects to this trade promotion authority for some democrats who are concerned about labor rights, environmental concerns, digital economy, this has a good prospect of getting through the finance committee with several democratic votes and republican votes and i hope we republicans won't want to hold back and giving trade promotion authority to this president because it is the right thing. >> with the president talking about the debt limit he raised concerns about defaulting. how concerned are they about default? do you think congress should increase the debt ceiling without any strings attached?

>> when you talk over the last few decades the only thing that has ever worked to get congress to restrain spending has been a debt limit discussion. the decision across-the-board, the most effective agreement came out of the debt limit session but so did the 1997 budget agreement with just talked about and 1990 agreement which probably led to george bush 41 not getting reelected. the budget control act we passed a few years ago, this improvement on the discretionary side of the budget. and the underlying program which is a spending problem. i'm not suggesting an extraneous issues but when you extent the credit card, your kids max out on the -- what do you do? you say deal with the underlying problem. >> we are not going to

negotiate, in the history of the united states ever taken that position and negotiated on it. this is the underlying problem i have in my view. you have a president who refuses to engage with congress? he stands up and says i will go around congress because i can't work with congress that won't eat and talk to them. difficulty getting congress and the president to work on these issues and there are several openings. if you won't engage and talk to congress it is a tough vote. when i go to my constituents and say we have 17, $18 trillion debt at historic levels, 140,000 bucks for every household in ohio but don't you think voting to extend the debt limit again without getting any changes in spending? >> that is a tough vote. what do you do?

>> i don't think they're likely to default because nobody wants to default. we should be responsible for this, the president should be responsible just as president bush, clinton, reagan, carter and every president has had to do when you raise the debt limit, and say this is a tough vote, and max out on it and extend the limit, i want to work with you, the attitude shouldn't be i am not even going to talk. refused to negotiate on this issue. i think it is something we glossed over last night and we continue to gloss over this notion everything is fine in terms of the debt and deficit. the congressional budget office which is an independent body has told us we are in deep trouble, back to trillion dollar deficits within ten years, we will have 100% increase on the mandatory side of the health care program.

>> packages of spending cuts and a senate proposition with senate democrats? >> the process ought to be the president ought to engage with both sides of the island come up with funds and s on the spending side and the mandatory spending side two thirds of the budget on auto pilot which is mandatory spending that is where the biggest increases are and where the potential is to address this long-term problem. there are some great ideas, one that i am pushing, medicare. and his own proposal in his own budget, and $450 billion savings over the next ten years, let's do that. in the past democrats have said they can't touch medicare, tax increases on the rich. that is a difficult logic to apply to cutting benefits for the wealthy.

let's say reducing medicare for the wealthy through premium increases in part d in the president's budget we have different approaches, and the debt limit discussion to tell the american people we actually did something to deal with the problem and the problem is again on the mandatory side of the budget on auto pilot that otherwise will grow dramatically to bankrupt the country. >> jobless benefits. you have been involved in those discussions and the president went after republicans last night for their votes against the latest proposal to move forward. discussion with senator collins, senator reid of rhode island, senator heller, how likely will get a deal? what i you looking at to pay? >> it is doable. republicans voted to have a

debate on that, we have a proposal among eight of us on the republican side, it was rejected and the majority leader had a proposal we didn't get to have the debate on those issues but the reality is we are close. it is a three month extension and during that time i want to do what the president said last night which is to read corm unemployment insurance for long-term unemployed. >> what you looking for? >> we want to pay for it. if you cannot paying you increase the debt and deficit which has a negative impact. if you can't pay for it you should. we can pay for it. i have lots of ideas including stopping the double dipping between unemployment insurance and social security disability which is in the president's budget so there is lots of waste, fraud and other issues. i know the democrats were talking about another proposal on the pension side snoozing

pension contributions. >> and -- >> we want to look at it. i do think there are ways to pay for it and what is more significant and interesting to me and exciting for the american people is how to change the unemployment insurance system to a halt people access to jobs that are available. >> we have to wrap up. one thing you learned about president obama last night, what is it? >> he is not sure what kind of second term president he wants to be going on the topic we talked about at the start. he has an opportunity to engage with congress and work with us to resolve some toughie issues, one is long-term unemployed and the skills gap and one is to get the country engage in trade and spanning exports and jobs and another is all the above energy policy, can and should be done and talked about tax reform and specifically corporate tax reform. these are all areas we can give the economy a shot in the arm.

hopefully we can get on track and work with him. in makes a decision, it won't happen without his leadership. provided a little help to democrats and support the democrats would be able to work with us to get these things done. >> thank you for your time. [applause] >> welcome to senator joe manchin from west virginia. [applause] >> how are you? >> are you in charge of the clock? >> you of course former west virginia governor and when you were a governor did you ever go before the state legislature in the state of the state speech and say i am going to go around legislature and do things because i can't work with you and do things on the administrative level?

>> never. first of all, what do you think you are going to do when someone says they will do it with or without you? hunched down and say let's try it? the bottom line is the benefit of the doubt to the president is he is very frustrated. i understand that. if you have been an executive you get frustrated. i work with democrats and republicans but the bottom line is i got to get something accomplished for the people of west virginia. that is what i was elected to do so i got to figure out how to get everybody to vote and the bottom line is you never put your opposition in an embarrassing position, never sent him home, can't defend themselves. >> do you think that is what the president does? >> we have an atmosphere of i don't get you you will get me. that is not a good atmosphere. we are not getting anything accomplished with that attitude and the bottom line is if i was looking to get you on the other side of the aisle knowing we're philosophically different, different parties, we are trying to get something accomplished. i can't go out and the rate you

on issues and think you're going work with me on monday a u.s. aid is great for the country but you don't want me here. you need to build relationships and that is where it starts. >> to you think is going around congress hurts the relationships? >> won't go around congress. i would like to think it was that he could have chosen better words. what i mean by that is first of all, the constitution whether the state or federal constitution gives the executive so much leeway, you have powers to do something and you are in charge basically of day-to-day operations and day-to-day operations are all the agencies you have to deliver the services people depend upon, or most effective and efficient way, the walls that have been passed to give the agency the power to do things are they exercising in a

prudent manner? you don't have to telegraphic and say anything? just keep moving around and if you do, go on with the playing field and someone says wait a minute, mr. president, you have gone too far here, i interpreted it this way, is he going too far in terms of doing things on an administrative level? >> i saw lot of frustration from the standpoint of i have tried to. maybe he believes in his part, the best of his ability to tried everything he could to bring people together. i don't believe you ever give up on that because that is the challenge of this process in this great republic of hours and the democracy we live in. do you ever try hard enough and accomplish it? are you able to get frustrated to the point that i have the power to do it and i don't think -- i don't think that is his intent but it came across pretty harsh, pretty direct, you don't see a lot of america pushing

back on that and you will see the opposition taken to a different level. >> is it unconstitutional? are you concerned about expanding the bounds? >> team might try. no different than when he had the recess appointments. that goes to court and this and everything. doesn't want that. he wants to get something done so bad. i could see the frustration level. i have been down that road before. can't they see that this will get people back to work? can't you see simplifying the tax code? my mic where he said we will look at incentives that reward corporate deduction because of job youth produced, you give me something in return. the people need value. jobs is what we need in west virginia. of some corp. god bless the mall, create these jobs and make these investments there will be centers of reward if you want to

have a lower or offset, you produce a job for it. not just using the code if you will. >> you talk about energy last night. the big issue in the core producing state. >> energy is a big issue in this country. >> he said yesterday climate change is a fact. >> absolutely, 7 billion of us have made an impact on this climate. >> do you think, give me your assessment of his administration's efforts to regulate carbon emissions and coal-fired power plants and expect that having on the coal industry? >> let me give you the fact of what we're dealing with. the coal industry as you know whether you like or don't like or don't understand it or haven't been involved in it produces a majority of the power for this country. introduces 35% of the power. anything close to it is natural gas.

between both of them you are 75% of the power produced for the country. you can wish all you want and i am a total believer in wind and solar and all renewables but they will not produce this much. if you're depending on that right now you would be cold and that is a fact of life and in the next 20, 30, 40 years even the department of energy, the president's own department of energy, basically says you are going to be able to depend on coal, you needed for the next 30 years and the president tells you we reduced emissions and particulates more in the last week to decades in the history of the world. >> what about epa regulations? >> government should be your partner. we should be working with technology. there are $8 billion line their fins since 2008, none of it has been spent, looking for technology, are and be. if we reduced emissions this far we will do so much more. you have to understand 8 billion tons of coal in the world, we

burn less than $1 billion worth of for coal in the united states. >> do you believe the mind that the president, the administration is waging a war on coal? >> if you had someone shooting at you every day you would think you are at a war. >> they're shooting at you every day. >> you have this moving target, this moving target, the new source performance standards what coal and gas, the same air standards, they can't. statistically impossible. all we have said, why don't you take a more prudent, realistic approach, look at the six best coal-fired plants in the country, the cleanest, best technology, used that as your standard because they are already producing, your depending on the energy, find examples, if you want better investments for research and get private-sector and public-sector working together. this is how we cure the other problems but all of a sudden in

every convention coal last night and produce more energy than anything we have and said cut $4 billion, my goodness, we have been subsidizing went for the last 20 years at two.two cents a kilowatt hour. >> how much is the president's and popularity in worcester junior affecting your party's ability to keep the jay rockefeller's seat in the coming -- >> it makes it very challenging because his numbers aren't good in our state, they're one of the lowest in western jr. two of the lowest states of his approval. the president is my president and your president whether it is a he or she or democrat or republican. you want the person to do well and i have never been against

something -- immigration is not a popular thing because people don't know. you need to mainstream these people and get some productive citizens of america we will all benefit. these things, constructive criticism, they have a hard time taking constructive criticism, trying to help. maybe the people they are defending, saying that makes sense. the facts on this have some real intelligent discussion. >> if hillary clinton becomes your presidential candidate or nominee, how does that affect democratic party in kentucky? can there be a resurgence in the party? do you sense the state is shifting rapidly to the right? >> the geography, west virginia is the northernmost southern state in the united states. we are right on the mason-dixon line. goes through our state.

we are the last. we are seeing on the national trend lot of social issues, a lot of lifestyle people don't understand. they just -- one of those things. >> you think the shift -- >> i don't think it has to be a permanent shift but we lost the entire south from the democratic party. i am proud west region yet democrat and i have a lot of friends who are proud west region republicans. we on both sides of the aisle don't really relate to the washington democrat lot or the washington republicans. it is a little different and we are not just running against that basically who we are. in western kenya you could be pro-life or pro-choice, pro labor pro-business, pretty big tail. >> the want hillary to run? >> i don't know if there's anyone more qualified. experience basically is hard to replace. a person that had the experience she had, seen it from the front

lines as first lady on the governor's end of it. the governors have a perspective that is different. we have to balance the budget. we work for the time line every day as a governor. when the crisis hit in 2007-2008, governors meet once a week with their policy. we had to meet every day, meeting twice a day to keep handle on finances. we don't see that urgency in the federal government, listen, we got to balance the budget. last time the ballot box was -- the budget was balanced was 2001. it is 2014 now. no one is talking about it. >> if there is one thing you learned about president obama last night it would be what? >> i learned his frustration level was very high. parts of that speech were conciliatory, we're going to work together and the americans. i would like to think he misspoke, picked his words poorly in some areas, if you don't want to be an american on

will be american by myself, i don't think that was his intention. it came across a little bit as that and i would hope we could come together a lot of good people want to work together for the country. >> thank you for your time, senator joe manchin. now i will introduce politico colleague richard blumenthal. >> good morning. we appreciate the opportunity to talk to use this morning. and a quick reminder to everyone, the mobile polling question on the tv above us, everyone make your way in and we will get to that. i will start where the new left off. what was the one thing, the biggest thing you've learned about the president last night? >> he is as frustrated with congress as the american people and i am and he is going to use

of full reach of his authority, not exceed, not to overreach, but use all of the authority congress has given him to get action for the american people on some of the key issues whether the minimum-wage or immigration where he already acted, or such a powerful the important issue, he is going to use executive orders and hopefully promulgate regulations that have been delayed. one of my walls with the administration is the overdelay in issuing rules to implement the law. >> he was overreaching the call for executive action, trying to go around congress. to you disagree with that? >> i fundamentally disagree the president will overreach. using executive orders less frequently than any recent president not by a little but by a lot.

the numbers were in the papers this morning about how infrequently he has used his authority. this authority has already been given to him. in fact there's a strong argument he should have been doing more executive orders in his presidency, i understand he wanted to work with congress and still does. and executing the law. >> what was in his feet -- speech focusing on obamacare and energy policy, you were most interested in a high-profile role. for example the intelligence reform, what would you have wanted to occur and where do you want to push the issue in the coming month? >> i would like to see the president emphasized the need for stronger judicial oversight.

i have proposed and advocated a constitutional advocate, a public-interest advocate, protect privacy rights before the court in an adversarial process. the president has embraced that idea. i would like to see a greater openness in the foreign intelligence surveillance court so the more rulings and opinions and decisions are made public. we cannot have secret laws made by secret courts, and i would like to see more expressed by the president. obviously he was focusing on a theme that has such compelling power right now, the theme of economic opportunity. i think it was a home run. the veterans' issues, more in terms of programs that will help not only brave veterans like the

guess i had last night who was hit by a roadside bomb and has come back to be an advocate for veterans, health care and also on military sexual assault because she was a victim of sexual assault while in the military. i would like to see him talk about those issues with greater specificity. embracing the ideas that are in the bill that chairman sanders of vermont and i was very pleased to be leading co-sponsor when he introduced it, health care, education opportunities, skilled training and all those specifics. >> what about gun legislation in connecticut. giving the odds of it getting some momentum this year? >> uphill, but still has a chance. the thing to keep in mind here

is, i have lost sight of world war ii. president reagan was almost half think, jim brady was shot and paralyzed, and still it took 12 years to adopt the brady handgun law, 12 years which makes 12 months look like a sprinter. we bring the bill back in some form, background check, mental health initiatives, sensible measures, ban on illegal trafficking, the american people wanted, 90% of american people favor it and i think it will come back in some form, maybe this session, maybe not but in some form it will come back. >> we have been focusing as house republicans, potentially looking and doing at something i

you optimistic something gets done this year, looking at the chamber, but is there anything on your side of the aisle to try to move this along? >> immigration reform will be done. priorities likely, veterans, immigration reform at the top. immigration reform, everybody has a piece of it. the president mentioned the high skilled workers are needed by american industry. we need to educate our own engineers and scientists and computer experts. there was a desperate need for those skills, agricultural workers are needed. venation cannot allow 11 million people to remain in the shadows. dreamers, one of the president's guests was a dreamer i believe.

i think there is real currency, political currency to this issue and it will get done again. and everything they want like the farm bill which took a while to get done. >> these issues that get in to political gridlock we talk about, the partisan nature of the speech, didn't necessarily help the momentum in the direction of getting things done. do you think there was any sense the president went too far or back a little bit? >> i think things are getting done. hopefully we will have the debt ceiling solved. we have a budget, farm bill. it was a series of measures that

will break the dysfunction. everybody in that congress has roads and airports. and a 20th century track, 60, 70 years old. york train going home is going to break down, stop, just like last thursday night in the newhaven line people were stranded on the track in one of the coldest days of the year. everybody has a stake in infrastructure. there are ways to do infrastructure bank, railroad trust fund. this is an idea that in the absence of earmarks. i came to congress in the post

earmarked era, senate had abandoned earmarks, over the protests of many of my more seasoned colleagues. >> would you like and to come back? >> what is needed is maybe not specific earmarked, specific congressional districts or states, but a solution that provides something for everyone. >> one of the things we talked about before with veterans affairs, you were involved, the president talked about the troops quite a bit but didn't get into specific policy. maybe there could be bipartisanship, what kind of, you may and a couple where that might go? >> the invisible wounds of war. an area where this nation has failed to address our obligation, post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury, different veterans of

different ages and different eras have different needs and challenges so what we need is a really comprehensive, big approach like the bill that i offered, proposed by senator sanders where i serve the veterans affairs committee, i see this through the eyes of two of my four children who served war are now serving in the military through the eyes of their contemporaries making decisions about what to do with their lives, some having come back from war with real needs and challenges and we have not even begun to address that obligation. healthcare, counseling, skilled training, job opportunities, there is a range of challenges and needs we need to meet and the president can't go into all these details in the state of the union but i would like to

see his support for the kind of omnibus' comprehensive bill we propose in the senator the veterans affairs committee. >> i want to end on a lighter note. you recalled in the washington post awhile ago, when you were an fbi prosecutor, wanted to get your sense of the afghan scandal and how closely to the movie what your experience was? >> the beginning of a movie there is a line, some of this actually happened. some of it, about 5% of the movie actually happened. i took a lot of grief from the fbi team i was working with at the time. i was u.s. attorney in connecticut and the movie bears a faint resemblance to the truth. interesting, i think it is a great movie but i wouldn't look to it for what actually happened.

>> from your personal experience. i really appreciate it. [applause] >> congressman chris van hollen, thank you for joining us. we will get started. you heard some of what the senator spoke about and what is your read in terms of the one thing you learned about the president last night? in his first speech he is making to the congress, you met with him before. any insights you drew? >> first of all i thought the president -- i want to thank michael graham for delivering the republican response. which essentially said to the american people i am going to throw the agenda over the balcony, the president's agenda. that sums up the republican reaction in the house. what we learned from the president last night is he is

someone who confounds back from a tough year, brazilian, determined not to have the country go as slow as the slowest boat which is the house of representatives. he laid out a number of specific challenges for the country and the american people, asked the congress to join him in those challenges but made it clear looking for every avenue within his authority and engage civic leaders and business leaders in maryland and pennsylvania today to move forward. wherever he can. i think resilience is a characteristic president demonstrated last night. >> in terms of the speech, house democrats before, what was the anticipation? i think it was nervousness he wouldn't give them enough to run on in 2014. did he deliver enough in terms

of giving that red meat to the debate to throw people out for 2014? >> the interesting thing about the president's agenda is it is not just red meat for the base is overwhelmingly popular for the majority of the american people. he laid out some very specific initiatives. it was under the important umbrella of opportunity for all economic empowerment and more shared prosperity, he set of specific initiatives. let's increase the minimum wage so someone who works full time is not below poverty level. allow people to earn paid sick leave so you can take care of a loved one who is sick. and not have to worry about missing your rent payment. he talked about universal early education, talked about closing corporate loopholes that encourage companies to move overseas and take the savings and investment for infrastructure at home. on every one of those if you

looked at the chamber last night, republicans were sitting on their hands. i don't think those are red meat democratic proposals. those are common-sense proposals that will resonate throughout the country. what happened in 2006 which was the last shift in the house, what we said during that election what the democrats it is if you elect democrats to the majority of the house here is a specific list of things we will do, we call it the 6 for 06. was away to break through the clutter and say republicans say they want job growth and economic opportunity and so do democrats but how do you distill that and meaningful way that will impact people's lives? minimum-wage and paid sick leave and universal free k and some specific things the president laid out will impact the lives of real americans. if we get people to focus on the details contrast will be clear and helpful. >> one thing you have been very involved and focused on in

campaign finance reform, it wasn't a large part of the speech. would you have wanted more? where do you, how will you push that issue in coming months? >> there are a couple pieces, campaign finance reform and voter empowerment. one is clearly millions of dollars pouring into these races. my focus has been look. i'd like to have campaign finance reform so that we can reduce the impact of special-interest money but for goodness sakes at least the american public should know who is spending that money and that is why as the author of the disclose act in the house which passed the house a number of years ago failed in the senate by one vote in the end on a filibuster after senator ted kennedy passed away, we were not able to get the 60 votes because scott brown voted against it but the disclosed act and the idea and transparency and accountability is important to

the public and the president has spoken in the past, we will be speaking about that more in this election because it does relate to these other issues. the reason people are secretly financing and bankrolling his campaign is not for charity. they have in most cases an economic agenda. and apparently they are not proud of the economic agenda they want to implement because they don't want to the american people to know who is spending the money so there's a clear connection between these bread-and-butter kitchen table issues that are important to the american people and the issue of campaign finance. last point i will make is the president talked about voter empowerment and the fact the nobody should have to wait in line five or six hours in order to exercise their ability to vote in this country. i think those things also resonate with the public. republicans have to explain why they are against the proposal that was derived by the president's former campaign counsel and mitt romney's former

campaign counsel and if we can break through on these sensible policies that are not red meat on the democratic side that really should be red meat for the whole country, we can move forward. >> what is your sense of immigration reform? the house republicans look like they may have more optimism, going to their retreat discussing the principles, is there anything democrats can do? are you hearing anything in terms of making you more optimistic? >> the jury is out on this as you indicated. house republican caucus going on their retreat today and we have to see how this shakes out. as the president pointed out last night, it is important for the country's giono the senate did pass a bipartisan comprehensive immigration bill and it would pass the house today if the speaker would allow us to vote. enough votes in the house today to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

the president could sign it tonight. speakers holding it up. he says he will look for another path. we will see. he has a lot of folks in his caucus that are dead set against any kind of comprehensive immigration reform. rican hope and i do hope they will come together but right now it is hard to put great odds on that. >> on that point how big an issue is this going to be for 2014 in terms of turning out the vote, if immigration reform doesn't happen, also have you touched on the number of retires you have been phasing in the house, lot of longtime veteran lawmakers making the decision not to run. >> i think immigration reform will play an important role in the midterm elections because as i indicated you do have this bipartisan bill in the senate

that the house republican party has refused to allow us to vote on. people know that. if the speaker is unable to muster a majority of his caucus or however many votes he thinks he needs, that clearly will be an issue laid at his feet as something he was unable to do despite the fact he had a bipartisan bill sitting in the house and it is another specific initiative that will differentiate the party's going into the midterm elections along with those other sort of kitchen table and bread-and-butter e shoes. in terms of retirement, you talk to some of my colleagues, george miller, we are going to miss him terribly, i mention george because he has been there 40 years now and he said it was time to go home and be with his family and do other things. i think if you talk to other

members who are retiring you will find the same thing. again, in those -- >> you don't think it said anything in terms of democrats' ability to take back the majority in 2014 or 2016. >> most of those retirements are in congressional districts we will win. there are a couple interdistrict that the same is true on the republican side. i don't think it says anything about the prospects for taking the house. we will pick up seats in the house and the question is whether we will reach the critical number of 17. what i would say is as we move through this new year we have a national debate on all the issues the president raised last night and again if we can get the public to focus on the specifics and make it clear if the house goes to the democrats, you will get a national minimum wage increase if the republicans don't come along with it between now and then.

you get earned sick leave paid for your family. we can push for universal prepay, we will push to close down corporate tax breaks that incentivize companies to ship jobs overseas and invest in infrastructure at home. those are specific thing. if we crystallize the election on specifics then i think we can break through. >> one last question, something we will be focusing on a lot. we have a story out today saying republicans are not going to go to the debt ceiling, they are going to cave, your budget chairman involved in these talks, and do you see them caving as they have in the past or could this go down the wire. >> this is another issue where it would be interesting to be inside the republican caucus in maryland over the next couple days because as you heard in the last couple weeks republicans keep saying they got to get something in exchange for the

debt ceiling and you know what? you don't get to match your republican agenda in exchange for paying our country's built long time. you don't get the full faith and credit of the united states, you don't get something for agreeing to pay for something congress on a bipartisan basis has voted on in the past. if they make the mistake they made last october and shutdown the government and much worse, than i am sure there will be up big public price to pay. more levelheaded members of the caucus recognize that but the big question has always been whether the tea party element will be centrally run the show. they did aid little bit of breaking that fever with the bipartisan budget agreement, but that is still a major part of

the house republican caucus and when it comes to it immigration reform and the question we're talking about with respect to the debt ceiling that remains the fundamental question, the war within the republican party, are they beginning to reconcile or not? the fact that they had multiple responses to the state of the union address, the tea party response, libertarian response, the official response and microgram's response, the fact that you had multiple responses shows that there is a real divisions that continues. >> thank you for your time, appreciate it. [applause] >> we are going to welcome mike allen back to the stage. he is with senator patty murray of the senate budget committee. >> thank you very much to all of you for being here on a busy morning, thank all of you in live stream land and all of you watching on c-span, appreciate

you being a long for this amazing ride. we have the honor of being with senator patty murray, chairman of the senate budget committee, fourth ranking senate democratic leader and a number one ranking senate democratic woman. senator murray, last night the most important thing you learned about president obama was what? >> what i was most impressed with was a lot of discussion about him being not engaged. he was very much engaged latinos exactly the issues american families are talking about, their hopes and dreams, spoke directly to them and i hope he understood where the country was. >> you were on the escort committee. you interacted with the president. what was that like? >> i happened to be talking to the president at the same time michael bennett was. a discussion about who the president was going to be rooting for on sunday and i won. actually the president won. i don't want to get in the middle of this. we know who is going to win.

>> things have started to work in washington. we thought that wasn't possible and you were a big part of that. the budget deal you made with your house counterpart paul ryan was quite an amazing accomplishment in this environment. we were talking about how an important part of that was the personal relationship, the trust you established and a token of the trust that you presented with chairman ryan. tell us about that. >> as you know a budget discussion can be difficult and challenging and the way we broke up our tents moments often was to talk about football, a good team this year, the seahawks and his team didn't do so great so i would give him grief about russell wilson who happens to be from wisconsin so he became our point of bringing our discussion back to somebody we both can support so once the budget agreement was done and we voted on it and had gone home i called

the seahawks and russell very graciously signed a jersey to paul and i brought it back and presented it to him. it was a great moment. he has a real trophy. >> how do you keep the momentum going from that agreement? >> that is an important question. one of the things that kept ryan and i together working on this agreement was the knowledge that the country really felt broken. like democracy can't work. my country can't work. that is a bad feeling for families, businesses, communities. everybody wanted our country to work and that focused on making sure we could find an agreement. what i have heard so much from people coming out of this is thank you for showing me there's a way forward, people can work together and if we keep that goal in mind on all of the tough issues we face, that the country is counting on us to find ways

to move forward and come to an agreement surely we have partisan differences, surely we have different philosophies but to not make him feel like the country is broken. >> something you said to me as we were chatting backstage was success with the budget agreement might be a template for eventually getting tax reform done. how would that be? >> there are couple things we learned. one is to trust each other not to take things out of the negotiation room, to use politically against each other in trying to reach an agreement but the bigger template for tax reform is we didn't try to do everything all at once. the country has been through a lot. >> we have to leave the last half-hour of this program to take you live to the u.s. senate. reminder that entire event will be available on our web site later today. senators today continue work on a bill that makes changes to

2012 federal flood insurance law specifically of the measure would delay full insurance rate increases for four years. debate on a series of amendments with votes on those amendments expected this afternoon. the pass final passage vote would follow later this evening. live to the senate floor on c-span2. l come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. eternal god, ultimate judge of the universe, you have been our dwelling place in all generations, and we are sustained by your steadfast love. today surround our senators with the shield of your favor as they labor to